“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18
In creation, the beam of enjoyment radiating from the Father’s face was focused on Jesus, and Jesus focuses His beam of enjoyment on us. This was God’s original intention for man.
Adam and Eve experienced God’s joy in an unhindered way until they sinned. Their sin hindered their relationship with God. Eventually, the Old Testament law was instituted, but it was not an adequate or permanent solution for restoring relationship between God and man.
God was determined to restore face-to-face relationship with man. Since the Lord created us for His own enjoyment, God would not permanently deny Himself the pleasure of intimate relationship with us. So, He sent His Son to redeem us. Jesus restored face-to- face relationship with God.
Moses’ relationship with God was a prophetic foreshadowing of what God was going to make possible for all of us under the New Covenant:
“But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?” (2 Corinthians 3:7-8)
Moses experienced the same beam of joy radiating from God’s face that Jesus experiences and describes in Proverbs 8:30. The glory coming from God’s face transformed Moses’ face so much so, it glowed. Under the New Covenant, Jesus has purchased access to God’s face for all of us!
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Now, all humans have access by the blood of Christ to the same transforming glory coming from God’s face that Jesus has enjoyed for eternity. From man’s perspective, access to God’s face is an awesome privilege. But from God’s perspective, it is what Jesus has longed for since He created us as the object of His delight.
This is why Jesus prays this in John 17:24: “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
Jesus has always wanted us to look at Him so we can be transformed by the glory of His delight for us. So, you have been God’s joy, the focal point of heaven’s delight since creation. Now, because of Christ’s redemption, you are free to enjoy it. Not only that, you and I are free to reveal God’s delight to others.
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